Dance This Mess Around

Thursday 6Just when you think they’re going condo...4th&B regroups with a coupla big gigs this week. Tonight, catch Omaha dance-punk crew the Faint. The former Saddle Creekers opened their own imprint, blank.wav, for this year’s crit-hit Fasciinatiion. Get to their Space page for a taste of lead single “The Geeks Were Right,” a grade-A synth-rock blast.... That “Freaker by the Speaker,” rock troubadour Keller Williams, is hailed as “a one-man jam band” from the land of jam bands, Fredericksburg, VA. Look it up. The longtime soloist last year assembled his dream band in Moseley (String Cheese), Droll (Marc Broussard), and Sipe (Leftover Salmon). The quartet will cut grassy rootsicana at Belly Up Tavern tonight. Check some sides from this year’s Sci Fidelity disc Live for the stage show.... Uptown, heady indie act Focus Group breaks it down at Bar Pink. The local quartet harks back to Three Mile Pilot, which makes sense, as TMP’s Pall Jenkins is listed under “additional dudes”...Cinci three-piece Heartless Bastards and the Old Palominos ride up on Beauty Bar...and folk-pop four-piece Wendy Darling dials in at Radio Room.

Friday 7Dance this mess around! Odd-pop outfit the B-52’s land at House of Blues Friday night. The five-twos came together in Athens, GA, ’round about 1976; dropped their first Billboard bomb in '79; and many moons later, this year’s electronica-meets-new-wave hit disc Funplex debuts at number elevum and cracks the dance-club charts with a pair of singles. Take that, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — according to a brooklynvegan poll (I know, I know), the quartet’s one of next year’s most-deserving but overlooked artists. Go show Kate, Cindy, Fred and...the other guy some love.... Alt-country road warriors Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers and the Mother Truckers haul the big rigs into Belly Up. Caught Mother Truckers at Brick by Brick a couple of months ago and the Texas trio cooks!... Saint Joe skate punks No Use for a Name dropped The Feel Good Record of the Year in April. No kidding. The punk-pop collection even includes “The Feel Good Song of the Year.” Pulley and Demasiado open no-name’s Casbah set.... Which one of these things doesn’t go with the others? Ché Café stages L.A. gazers Signal Hill with thrash maniacs Waco Fuck, Landmine Marathon, and Graf Orlock. Catch Signal Hill’s KSDT on-air at 4p.... Welcome Chicago transplants Marasol to the Southland. The alt-rock trio drops their catchy debut on Radio Room. Irradio and Japanese Sunday are also on the bill.... Acid-jazz combo Pocket funks up Bar Pink.... And lo-fi popsmith Charles Musket will be out at the Ken. Check out their tasty Space takes. (Those Millgaten kids’ve got their fingers in a lot of pie.)

Saturday 8The other big gig at 4th&B is a hat-trick triple bill for radio 94/9’s sixth anny. The showcase’ll be headlined by hot-n-heavy Brooklynites TV on the Radio, with Detroit garage punks the Dirtbombs and local rock-n-soul hits Delta Spirit in support. All t’ree bands have got new product at your local Target emporium, but TVotR’s Dear Science is the shizz. Get it in your carousel and rethink pop music — it’s grown a new limb.... Couple Midwest monsters go head-to-head at Casbah, when Detroit garage gang Electric Six takes on Chi-town rawkers Local H.... Atoms, Powerchords, Misfits cover band Hybrid Moments, and some Rough Kids from L.A. fill a bill at the Ché.... It’ll be East Coast hip-hop playas Jedi Mind Tricks out at Canes.... And Arista artist Clarence Greenwood, aka Citizen Cope, brings his Jack-Johnson-sings-trip-hop shtick to Spreckels downtown.

Sunday 9Folk-rock singer-songer Vic Chesnutt joins psych-pop act Elf Power at Casbah. They’re all from Athens, but Chesnutt’s from the REM side of town, while Elf Power’s from the Elephant 6 side of town. Chesnutt pens tunes about you and me, and Elf Power sings about wizards and shit. It’s all good.... The Tighten Ups cinch a Sunday-nighter at Bar Pink. Haven’t caught the blue-funk band yet, and it ain’t their fault because gawd knows they play out enough, but hear tell they do put on a fun one.

Monday 10Belly Up’s serving up chops Monday night, with '70s stalwarts Little Feat. The L.A.-based roots-rock outfit this year celebrates 20 years as a reformed band! That’s twice their Lowell George heyday. George passed in 1979, leaving Little Feat in limbo. Since regrouping, they’ve dropped a couple pebbles in the pond, CD-wise, but this year’s Join the Band is a pretty cool collection of rock classics performed with radio-rock luminaries such as Bob Seger, Emmylou Harris, and Dave Matthews. Check the fresh take on the Band’s classic “The Weight,” featuring banjo freak Béla Fleck. Love that song.... Two years of Anti-Mondays and the fuckers keep coming. Mondays, I mean. SD: Dialed In will stage Writer, Low Red Line, and Joel P. West for the anniversary gig.... Else: That jagged little pill Alanis Morissette appears at the San Diego Civic Theatre...and Brooklyn pop combo Bishop Allen blesses the Loft at UCSD.

Wednesday 12More from Athens. Must be something in the water down there. The critics love Dead Confederate, and though their sprawling new collection of Southern psych-rock, Wrecking Ball, may not knock you over right away — it’s an acquired taste — tour reports suggest the quintet kills it live. They’ll take the stage at Casbah behind Apollo Sunshine and the Northstar Session.... NYC transplants Mad Juana hit up their favorite hot spot, Bar Pink.... And guitar goof Joe Satriani headlines what would have otherwise been a pretty cool Mountain gig at House of Blues. Leslie West and Corky Laing, y’all.— Barnaby Monk